Under Construction
Usually the only things that I deal with that are under construction are my projects, but for the last few weeks it’s been a new company!
After years of working at firms owned by others I’m going out on my own and so while I’m helping clients with their projects I’m also figuring out accountants, attorneys, insurance, bank accounts, software licenses and this very website. It’s an interesting, complicated and at times frustrating process, but I’m really excited to be working for myself and am looking to the future with hopefulness.
Back to the website for a moment, building one seems like it’s going to be very easy and the templates that come complete with glossy images sure do help with that. However, the point of a website is to showcase your own work so the stock images go out the door and get replaced by new ones. With the ubiquity of cameras today it’s easy to forget the skill that professional photographers bring, but their skill at making a beautiful image is indeed critical and worth paying for. I’m just starting out and haven’t established a marketing budget yet and so will be forgoing (for now) paying for the rights to photography paid for by previous firms and will rely on images that I’ve taken or created myself. These may not look quite as polished as what you see on other sites, but they do reflect my presence on the job site and willingness to get into the nooks and crannies of my projects and showing that has always been something I’ve valued. In the future there will be nice glossy shots of the work, but there will always be dingy smartphone images as well.
It’s funny, starting my own firm was never something I thought about in school and so wasn’t that type of long term goal. In the last 10 years or so I’ve found myself thinking about it more and more but was always too nervous and hesitant to make it happen. What if clients don’t want to come with me? What if the economy tanks? What if I don’t find new project? An unending list of “What ifs” and for some reason at this point I can put the list behind me and jump in head first to see what happens.
